This invention relates generally to depilatory devices and techniques. More specifically the present invention relates to manual or hand-held depilatory devices.
The earliest known depilatory device, probably made during the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, originated somewhere in near, middle, or far East Asia. The device was simply a piece of silk or cotton string which was folded approximately in half. The folded string was held at both ends and was twisted a few times, forming several coils in the middle of the fold. To remove hair the thumb and the forefinger were placed in the loop, one end of the string was held with the other hand and the other side was held at a tension by the teeth or looped and tied around the neck. The string was manipulated by moving the thumb and forefinger by bringing them together and taking them apart at the tips while simultaneously the opposite of this action was done at the two other ends, (the teeth or neck and the other hand). This manner of manipulating the strings caused the coil formation collectively to move linearly back and fourth. When the coils were put on the skin and set in motion by manipulating the string, hair could be engaged by the loops and removed from the skin.
Although this method of depilation was simple and efficient, it was not only awkward but a second individual was needed to perform the operation.
Various types of mechanical depilatory devices have been proposed and are known in the market place.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,175 to Daar et al. (1991) illustrates an electrically powered depilatory device including a hand held portable housing, a hair engagement and removal assembly including elongate elements in mutually twisted engagement and a motor for driving the elongate elements in motion, whereby hair is engaged between the elongate elements and thus removed. The disadvantages of the device are that:
(a) It is powered electrically therefore it cannot be used where electricity is not available;
(b) It's not sufficient or practical to use on facial hair especially in places such as the eyebrows and hair above the lips;
(c) One is unable to see exactly what hair is being removed because the housing covers the strings that remove the hair; and
(d) The device is continuously working in one direction, and therefore might accidentally remove the wanted hair especially since the operating tip of the device being the elongate elements are covered by the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,722 to Avrahami (1992) illustrates a method and device for plucking hair by engaging the hair with a hair-plucker body to clamp the hair thereto, moving the hair-Plucker body and the hair clamp in the plucking direction with respect to skin, and successively interpreting the movement of the hair-plucker body by a series of short tugs to the hair until it is plucked from the skin. The disadvantages of the device are: a) the device processes very slowly; b) it can only be used on the face; c) it is unpractical for any other part of the body; d) it can only be used were electricity is available; and e) It removes the hairs one at a time therefore taking a long time to pluck the hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,419, to Garenfeld (1994) shows an invention that relates to a depilation apparatus provided with a depilation member having pinching elements for consecutively holding hairs, and clamping and pulling said hairs from the skin. The disadvantages of this device are: a) it can only be used were electricity is available therefore it cannot be used without electricity; b) it is too fast, therefore too painful; and c) it is hard to control and it is too wide to be used for facial hair.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a depilatory device that has a simple mechanism which can be manufactured inexpensively so that consequently it is affordable to most potential users, which is portable and may be used anywhere, and whose operation does not depend on availability of electricity or use of batteries. Additionally, a depilatory device is needed that accurately plucks the hair from wanted areas and provides control over how much hair it plucks that is useable and sanitary for more than one person because the portion that plucks the hair and comes in contact with the skin is changeable for each person when desired, and is durable and reliable with long life and does not need any repairs that the user is not able to perform. Moreover, such a device is needed hat does not hide any of it's parts or elements by any housing or cover, is easy to assemble and reassemble, and allows the user to see the hair that is being plucked while it is being plucked. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.